Stellar Foundation Acquires Minority Shares In International MoneyGram

JAKARTA - In the latest development in the cryptocurrency world, the Stellar Foundation, the crypto developer entity XLM has announced the acquisition of minority shares in the leading payment company MoneyGram International (MGI). This move is seen as part of a strategy to become a leader in the realm of digital fintech.

In a new blog post, Denelle Dixon, CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), revealed details of transactions involving cash from the SDF cash in a go-private transaction with private equity company Madison Dearborn Partners, parent company MoneyGram.

This investment marks the first step of the Stellar Foundation in this kind of investment, with additional bonuses in the form of obtaining seats on the MoneyGram Board of Directors. Dixon proudly stated that this opens up opportunities for collaboration with the leaders of the payment industry, financial services, and technology that will contribute to directing MoneyGram's digital strategy.

The commercial partnership between SDF and MoneyGram begins in 2021 and has resulted in productive cooperation. This collaboration peaked in 2022, when the two launched an innovative service called MoneyGram Access.

The service is designed to help address the gap between fiat and cryptocurrencies, by leveraging Stellar technology and USD Coin (USDC) stablecoins. The service has been introduced in key remittance markets, including the Philippines, the United States, Canada, and Kenya.

Dixon explained that this investment is in line with the vision to make MoneyGram a leader in digital changes in the fintech industry. This investment provides SDF with a strong position to participate in MoneyGram's journey, including digital business expansion, blockchain technology exploration, and contributes in many other ways that encourage this company to enable users and businesses to make cross-border financial transactions easily.

At the same time, Stellar (XLM) is trading at a price of 0.127 US dollars (around Rp1,900) at the time of writing. Despite a decline of more than 2% in the last 24 hours, this crypto asset remains one of the top rankings by market cap.